Treasury Select Committee inquiry into Economic Crime

Last month, the Law Society submitted evidence to the Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry into the effectiveness of the UK's AML, Counter-Terrorism Financing and sanctions regime. A breakdown of the remit of the inquiry can be viewed on the Parliament’s webpage.

The Law Society’s response emphasises that the UK’s AML framework is among the most comprehensive in the world. Effective improvements to how this framework applies in practice would be achieved through reform to the Suspicious Activity Reporting regime and by boosting the National Crime Agency’s resources to allow the NCA to analyse SARs intelligence faster.

We would also like to see further support by Government agencies for the legal sector’s AML efforts. More timely typologies would alert our members to the latest money laundering risks, and speedier processing in cases where consent/DAML is refused would greatly assist business operations. Administrative challenges such as the speed at which sanctions licenses can be granted by the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation should be addressed.